Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24) — Every year since 2007, the world observes Earth Hour as a campaign to protect the planet and combat climate change. This year, the annual hour-long lights off will be observed on Saturday, March 25, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in respective local time.
As part of the advocacy of saving Mother Earth, Filipinos were urged to engage in the following activities:
Strengthen environmental awareness through educational films
With the theme “The Biggest Hour for the Earth,” the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) urges the public to “give an hour for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something — anything — positive for our planet.”
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Friday suggested watching documentaries or educational films to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
These films include the three-minute videos WWF Entangled Series on biodiversity loss, deep seabed mining, planet plastic and nature-based solution.
DENR also said listening to podcasts or talks about the environment will help gain understanding on environmental issues.
Turn non-essential lights off
Switching off lights has become a symbol of \”commitment to the planet,\” DENR said.
\”The one-hour \”lights off\” action significantly lowers energy consumption, thus reducing carbon emission and harmful greenhouse gasses (GHG), whose biggest source is electricity,\” DENR said in a statement.
Patrick Aquino of the Department of Energy explained that the annual Earth Hour generated up to 100 megawatts reduction in electricity consumption.
\”Earth Hour is a collective effort that all of our individual actions, added up together, makes a significant impact,\” Aquino told CNN Philippines The Final Word on Thursday.
According to WWF, the “hour of darkness pulls us out of the busyness of our daily routines” and “allows us to reflect” and “take action” on the “accelerating biodiversity loss and climate change.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also joined the call for Filipinos to participate, citing data from the International Energy Agency which showed that global carbon emissions reached to a new all-time high of 36.8 gigatons last year. According to NASA, the mass of a gigaton is equivalent to 10,000 fully-loaded US aircraft carriers.
\”It only takes 60 minutes to do good for our future, 60 minutes to take notice and commit to saving Mother Nature to be united and to take action because together, nothing is impossible,\” Marcos said in a video posted in his YouTube page.
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